Museum of the Musk Rat
Museum of the Musk Rat by artists Martina Florians and Sasker Schreeder is the second edition of a museum devoted to the dyke destructing rodent Ondatra zibethicus. The museum, set up within the dilapidated ruins of a former mill and sheep shed, is part of the art route manifestation Een Dijk van een Kust (A coastal dyke), a series of art works along a 35 km sea dyke between Durgerdam and Etersheim directly north of Amsterdam.
The museum contains a cabinet of curious finds and musk rat affiliated wonders from an Aura Cloak for a musk rat; an example of Darwin’s bioturbation theory (bioturbation is the disturbance of sedimentary deposits by organisms like worms or indeed musk rats), the 1976 Captain & Tennile cover to the pop song Muskrat Candlelight featuring sound effects created with a synthesizer to evoke the sounds of muskrats courting. The museum also exhibits an urbanibalist contribution: a dystopic menu for the future. It’s Thanksgiving day for urban harvest 2099. Amsterdam has become a megalopolis of 12 million, the city’s maritime fortifications are under threat by colonies of muskrats. The only solution is: eat the enemy! The menu features not only the loathed musk rat, but also parts of the creature’s own hidden food chain that keep them bioturbinating the dykes: polder foodstuffs such as cattails, sweet flag, swamp grasses and slow carp.
Silhouette of the Musk Rat Museum (photo Sasker Scheerder/ Martina Florians)
Thanksgiving for Urbanibalist Harvest featuring the foodchain of and the musk rat itself
The Dystopic Thanksgiving Menu, anno 2099, features the following 5 courses (some descriptions remain untranslatable):
Hors-d’oeuvre ‘Pig of the Fish‘: Carp Carpaccio with water mint sauce
Potages of Water, Land, Dykes: Choice of Waterbank plant purée with Water sorrel and stalks of Cattail, or a Canal consommé of Zebra mussel and a pesto of Water plantago.
Armeluis Entrée (Poorman’s entrée): Croquettes of stamped Woodrush seeds, Smelt fish, and Red American Crayfish.
Vijand Viande (Enemy Meat!): Roasted enemy number #1: Musk rat with polder Rapeseed. Accompanied by salad of Milkthistle leaves and Willowherb flower and Gypsywort and Cattail mash.
Dessert & Digestive — Under the watermark: Reed marshmallows with a glass of Beverrattenburg (Beaver Rat burg) a secret brew of Sweet flag root.
Though the menu is a hypothetical one, all ingredients can be gleaned from in and around the swamplands of Amsterdam North.
Download the original blue version of the Musk Rat Thanksgiving Menu: Musk rat Menu [pdf].